You may have wondered why we put so much effort into widening our pages when it didn’t really have much of an effect on the site (other than making pet pages, forums and groups wider with less scrolling, which we hope everyone is loving). But widening the pages was also something we had to do to prep for much larger changes in the works.

Back in February, we told you about the research we’ve been doing to better understand the two groups of people who use our sites:

1. The passionate community members who come back frequently to connect, play games, make friends and support one another, have fun, and support great causes.

AND

2. Non-members who are coming to our site (often from a search engine) looking for an answer to a specific question or problem they are having with their pet.

Turns out our sites are growing up and becoming more popular than we ever imagined. So we want to make sure that all our visitors are able to get the information they need to be excellent pet owners, while at the same time having the greatest place for dog lovers to meet, learn, share and have fun. So here’s a sneak preview of what the new site organization will be!

In addition, of course, we will still have all of our wonderful Community areas, grouped together in one place: Pet Pages, Forums, Groups, Answers, Local, Gifts, Games, Contests & Deals.

Dogster and Catster will also have a new look! New colors, a new background, new navigation buttons, and more. We’ve all grown very attached to our adorable site design, but change is coming and we hope you’ll embrace it! However, we very much want to keep the features you know and love very very similar to how they are now. It’s like rearranging the furniture in your house – sometimes it’s hard to get used to, but once you adjust it’s like a breath of fresh air that allows you to enjoy your space in a new way. And trust us, we’re going to stay out of your room, so to speak, and ensure that Pet Pages, Paw Mail, Forums, Groups, Photobooks, Pet Awards, Pals and Corrals, will function and work just the same way.

Stay tuned and we will be sure to let you in on the new design as it’s evolving. We’ll share some screenshots here in the coming weeks!

Please leave a comment here if you have thoughts or feedback on the new site navigation listed above.